Geospatial Responses for Disaster Management

Floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, tsunamis, lightning: natural disasters can occur at any time, often without warning, and can cause devastating effects. With geospatial disaster management solutions, we are able to analyze current emergency situations, identify the areas most in need, effectively communicate to responders, and even use pre-event data to help plan the best response strategy.

Join our experts at HxGN LIVE Hong Kong from 18-20 Nov and learn how geospatial solutions can assist with planning and recovery for natural disasters. Here’s a sneak peek of the related sessions at the conference:

Floods are a world-wide problem, and GIS technology has become the backbone for providing crucial information in the assessment of risk to properties and human lives. Recently, a study for the Central Region of Singapore assessed land loss and associated damages to buildings for different flood scenarios. This study uses a flood depth grid combined with a flood exposure database in order to estimate the damage factor. Using the IMAGINE Spatial Modeler, automated tools were developed that conform to NOAA’s approach for generating flood extent and depth maps. Standard methodologies and tools borrowed from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were used to generate an exposure database in adherence to FEMA’s Comprehensive Data Management System (CDMS) data dictionary for floods. This supports analysis in FEMA’s Hazus-MH risk assessment software by helping users easily define accurate loss estimations. ERDAS IMAGINE and Field Manipulation Engine (FME) tools were used to customize building inventories into the CDMS format. The ERDAS IMAGINE spatial overlay techniques were then used to identify flood-affected buildings, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers damage function was used to derive the depth-damage factor for different types of facilities concentrated in the central region. Join us to discover the interesting results from this study, including statistics on properties exposed to flooding and also custom damage curves developed for different types of residential facilities.Presenters: Chandrasekar Jayaraj and Durairaju Kumaran Raju, Geoscience Consulting – Singapore

UAV Solutions for Disaster Relief in Japan

When the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster occurred in March 2011, a Global Hawk drone flew over the nuclear plant to capture images and document the extent of the damage. Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as investigative tools in high-risk areas for disaster response in Japan is fairly common. For more than 40 years, Hexagon Geospatial has been a trusted partner of Defence and Intelligence agencies worldwide and has created unique and useful solutions for UAVs including Motion Video Exploitation (MVE). The MVE solution enables you to fuse video with other sources of intelligence and analyse it in a single environment. Built on our geospatial content management, forensic video analysis, and intelligence fusion and exploitation capabilities, MVE provides end-to-end management and exploitation of full motion video assets. Discover in this session how MVE provides stakeholders and mission commanders the information they need to take decisive action based on a complete understanding of the situation on the ground. Learn how our partner PASCO Corporation creates innovative and customised Hexagon Geospatial solutions to stay on top of disaster management scenarios in Japan.Presenter: Yoichiro Ohta, Hexagon Geospatial – Japan

Using GIS and Geospatial Technologies for Disaster Management

The world’s population continues to increase, and more people than ever before are congregating in dense urban environments. More people living in a smaller space increases the chance that a strong natural event can have severe—or even catastrophic—effects. The earth’s plates are constantly moving, and in urban environments even small seismic activities can have major repercussions, escalating into full-fledged disasters. When earthquakes cause severe calamities, the government must quickly and efficiently act to provide aid and assistance to the affected areas. Time is of the essence, and accurate geographical information is crucial in order for decision makers to take proper action. Data such as the exact epicentre of the disaster, the magnitude of the earthquake, and extent of the severely affected areas will inform response, dictating the best locations for triage centers and shelters, avenues through which to mobilise help, and maps to get responders to the needy in the damaged areas. To support these efforts, NGRI plans to use integrated geospatial web technologies from Hexagon to supply updates of seismic activities dynamically through a GIS portal.Presenters: Kalyan Netti, NGRI – India and Vishnu Boorla, Hexagon – India

About Author

Rosalie Azzato joined the Hexagon Geospatial team as a Digital Marketing Specialist in July 2015. In her role, she helps in developing marketing campaigns and strategies to direct online traffic to the company website through social media, contributing to industry and company blogs, and keeping up to date with current digital trends. Rosalie obtained a Bachelor of Science in Communication, as well as a minor in marketing from Kennesaw State University. Outside of work, she enjoys attending concerts, spending time with her friends and family, and cuddling with her dogs, Darla and Ozzy.

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About Hexagon Geospatial

Hexagon Geospatial helps you make sense of the dynamically changing world. Hexagon Geospatial provides the software products and platforms to a large variety of customers through direct sales, channel partners and other Hexagon businesses.

Hexagon Geospatial is part of Hexagon, a leading global provider of information technology solutions that drive productivity and quality across geospatial and industrial landscapes.
Hexagon’s solutions integrate sensors, software, domain knowledge and customer workflows into intelligent information ecosystems that deliver actionable information. They are used in a broad range of vital industries. Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 18,000 employees in 50 countries and net sales of approximately 3.3bn USD. Learn more at hexagon.com.